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Luc Aphand to Open Ski Season in Bulgaria's Bansko
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French driver Luc Alphand of Mitsubishi smiles after completing the sixth stage of the Central Europe Rally, the first ever race of the Dakar Series near Veszprem, Hungary. EPA/BGNES
Top French alpine skier Luc Alphand will be the one to open the new ski season in the largest Bulgarian mountain resort Bansko.
Alphand is the only person to have won the ski World Cup and the Dakar Rally.
He has several world ski championship medals from the mid 1990s. Alphand made his World Cup skiing debut in 1984. In 1997 he won the World Cup.
After that, he retired only to start a career in car racing. He won the 2006 Dakar Rally, in which he had finished runner-up a year earlier. With this victory, he was the first ex-skier to win the Paris-Dakar.
Alphand will open the Bansko ski season on December 11, 2010. At least one international ski legend is expected to join him for the event but no other name has been confirmed.
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